Interior. General view showing date 1834.

Description Interior. General view showing date 1834.

Date 6/1957

Collection Records of the Scottish National Buildings Record, Edinburgh, Scotland

Catalogue Number PB 1107

Category Photographs and Off-line Digital Images

Copies SC 760032

Scope and Content Interior of heather hut, Traquair House, Scottish Borders This shows the heather hut in the gardens, with part of the heather-thatched walls visible on the left. The interior is intricately decorated with cut hazel twigs laid to form a herringbone pattern. The date '1834' and a crown are set into the wall above a circular twig-decorated table. Arcaded seating is arranged around the walls. This heather hut is a rare survival of one of the 'roofed seats, boat houses, moss houses, flint houses and bark huts' described in gardening books such as J C Loudon's 'Encyclopaedia of Gardening' of 1822. These picturesque little buildings formed 'resting-places, containing seats and other furniture, or conveniences in or near them'. Traquair is the oldest continually inhabited house in Scotland, with its origins in the 10th century. It was the site of a royal hunting lodge in the 1200s, but the house as seen today is based around a c.1512 tower-house with many later additions. The flanking service wings were built in 1695 to designs by architect James Smith (c.1645-1731), who also designed the wrought-iron screens round the courtyard in 1698. Source: RCAHMS contribution to SCRAN.

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